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Originally Posted by deepfred
You should be helping people to group, not hindering them.
Grouping is the most fun part of this game for many people, and also the most obvious and effective means for socialization. It amazes me how little there is in this game to help facilitate this process.
Right now, finding a group is *not* easy, if even possible much of the time. Much like the earliest days of EQ1, the only way to find and participate in groups is really to make your own and work very hard at maintaining it - be it any kind of group, PvE, PvP, etc.
New players have no idea what a group would even do. A tutorial that explains how groups can take missions together, or even get started is sorely lacking.
Societies do and can help this deficit to some extent, but finding and commiting to a Society is not going to be for everyone, and may well be something people avoid for several weeks or more while they get a better idea of what they'd like to be doing for their given faction on their given server. Not to mention it's even more risky and intimidating for the new playe, than getting in a group.
Virtually all MMO's these days have some kind of /LFG Tool that enables people see that there are groups available, or flag themselves as being looking for a group. And they're mostly all extremely useful, to the point of even making the game viable (eg something like Planetside in a low population game).
While it's easy to think that if people want groups "they should go make one themselves", that goes against human nature (where 80% of people are not going to be that proactive). This game would benefit immensly from having a tool that enabled some basic things...
A search window where people could see any existing groups looking for more (LFM), as well as a list of all in their nation that are looking for a group (LFG). Most important, the listing would also include preferences (eg PvP, or PvE), but the paramount thing would be listing *character level, and profession*.
Societies would also benefit from being able to see the character level and profession of their members (for in the case of larger societies, it would enable those in the society to see what they probably don't know about their own society).
Finally, I would suggest putting more group oriented missions in the game. I haven't played beyond level 21 yet, so I don't know what to expect from higher level missions, but it seems odd to me that the only specifically group oriented mission in the game up to level 21 is Red Tide. I have no doubt that if you can run the numbers on how often this mission is played you find it is by far the most popular or most frequently played mission (perhaps only comparable to the economy tutorial).
It is baffling to me why there aren't much, much more missions like this in the younger game, given the ability such missions have to introduce people to grouping and seeing how epic and fun the game can be with these larger missions.
MMOs always benefit from socialization (the intermingling of players), and PotBS has a wonderful dynamic to do that with: grouping, grouping, grouping. A few relatively simple tools would vastly change the degree of socialization by promoting the simple and less intimidating means to group with fellow players whom you may not yet know as a player.
The toughest part of any new relationship is breaking the ice - why make it so hard to do so by simple omission? Take a page from many MMOs who've successfully used their most favorable asset (a fun experience in groups) to it's greatest degree by enbling all players to get involved without the huge task and risk of needing to be proactive enough to create and lead a group.
Having a reason to hang out in town is dandy and all, but that's not why the majority of people play games - they play games to play a game. They play social games, to play *with* other players. You've done a wonderful job of tying down things like class balance, PvP and economic dynamics - the hard work has been done and now you have a game that is *extremely fun in groups*. The trouble is, you've made getting into the group in the first place extremely mysterious and intimidating.
You should be helping people to group, not hindering them.
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